How Iran exploited the unrest in Yemen to smuggle weapons to the Houthis?
English - Tuesday 18 May 2021 الساعة 06:24 pm
NewsYemen, Middle East:
Twelve years separate between the official announcement of the seizure of the first ship to smuggle Iranian weapons to the Houthis and the last ship a few days ago in the waters of the Arabian Sea.
Among them are operations that have not been controlled or uncovered, as preceded by sending thousands of militia members to Iran and Lebanon for training in fighting and installing weapons, as well as planting spy cells for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard through elements that entered Yemen as merchants.
Sources who previously worked in Yemeni intelligence accuse Tehran of exploiting the political and security instability that Yemen has witnessed since 2011, to intensify the shipment of weapons to the Houthis across the coasts and islands of the Red Sea in Hajjah Governorate (northwest of the country).
In 2009, the Yemeni authorities announced the seizure of the first shipment of Iranian smuggled weapons, but they did not reveal additional details about that shipment that was seized on the coasts of the Red Sea, but the information available about that period showed that the Houthi militias after this shipment were able to smuggle large quantities of weapons. Across the coasts of Hajjah governorate, especially with the beginning of the political crisis that hit Yemen at the beginning of 2011, when the militias, through their followers, bought large areas of land in the coastal Midi region and the large farms spread there.
While the ruling parties and the Yemeni opposition were struggling in Sanaa and the main cities for power, the Houthi militia expanded in controlling the camps in Saada Governorate, where they received all the camps, including weapons.
It also intensified the smuggling of weapons in an unprecedented way through Midi and the small islands spread on the Yemeni coasts, as Iranian ships used to unload weapons on those islands, while the Houthis were transporting them to the shores of Midi by fishing boats.
A former Yemeni intelligence officer said, in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat: “The protests and conflicts between the regime’s components and wings in Sana’a have caused the regime’s grip on the coastal areas to loosen up. The army and intelligence stockpiled large quantities of high-quality weapons in Midi, after which they were easily transferred to Saada, which has become their own province.
These operations continued until the transfer of power to the current president, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, when the political parties were busy sharing power, and the authorities announced after that, on March 7, 2013, that a new smuggled Iranian weapons ship, called "Jihan 2", was arrested. Entry into Yemeni territory.
A statement by the Ministry of the Interior at the time stated that the ship was seized on the Yemeni island of Sawabaa, near Bab al-Mandab, after it unloaded a shipment of weapons to a Yemeni fishing boat owned by a person whose name it symbolized as 'Q.' Plus », pointing out that the seizure of the ship came in an operation in which the Navy, Coastal Defense and Coast Guard police boats participated.
On January 23, the authorities arrested the Iranian ship "Jehan 1", which carries "dangerous" weapons for the Houthi militia, including modern anti-aircraft missiles and high explosive materials, which was on its way to the Houthi-controlled Midi port to supply them with its cargo. The ship was carrying 48 tons of weapons, missiles and explosives, which were described as highly explosive. Among the weapons were the "SAM-2" and "SAM-3" anti-aircraft missiles.
The crew of the ship was referred to the criminal court specialized in terrorism and state security issues in Aden, but the ship managed to escape from the port, and the authorities did not provide an explanation for that, while the court subsequently issued a sentence of 10 years imprisonment against the main accused,
Hamid Dahash, who is a fugitive from justice. The information indicates that he fled towards Syria. It also sentenced the accused Abdul Aziz Mahrous, Salah Mahdi and Muhammad Kembet to 6 years in prison, and punished the fourth suspect, Abdul Malik Al-Mashouli, with 3 years imprisonment.
It also punished the fifth defendants, Radwan Abdullah Saleh, the sixth, Tharwat Abbas, the seventh, Fawzi Muhammad Ahmed, and the eighth, Mutab Abdo, with one year in prison, in addition to the confiscation of weapons for the Ministry of Defense, the ship Jihan and the seized sums (amounting to 30 thousand dollars) in favor of the state treasury, before the Houthi militia stormed Sanaa. She released them and released two Iranians accused of working for a cell belonging to the Revolutionary Guard.
In May 2015, a confidential report by experts at the United Nations submitted to the UN Security Council stated that Iran had provided weapons to the Houthis since at least 2009, as following an investigation by experts after the Yemeni authorities in 2013 abducted the Iranian ship Jihan, which was Transportation of weapons The information obtained indicates that "this ship was preceded by other arming operations in Yemen dating back to 2009", and that "the current military support from Iran to the Houthis has been proven through arms transfers over a period of at least 5 years." In addition to "Cihan," the experts identified 5 cases in which Iranian ships transported weapons to Yemen.
According to Yemeni officials, before the start of "Decisive Storm", Tehran was able to transfer weapons on a daily basis from Tehran to Sanaa through flights, according to an agreement it concluded with the militia authority days after the coup, and that the militias, with the complicity of regional parties, took advantage of the flights that the coalition was allowing to conduct. Between some airports and Sanaa airport, it transported quantities of "SAM" missiles and thermal missiles, in addition to large amounts of money.
According to the preferences of Yemeni officials who spoke with Asharq Al-Awsat, asking not to reveal their identities, the arms smuggling operation after the start of Operation Decisive Storm shifted to the eastern coasts of Yemen, where boats used to deliver these shipments to the outskirts of the Yemeni border.
